My Life In Piles (Plus a Camper Preview)

By this time tomorrow my trusty pup and I will be driving across America with a single goal in mind, collect my soon-to-be-named trailer.  Right now, she’s like a little baby bird without her feathers.  

Isn’t she adorable!

By Tuesday of next week, she will be a fully formed sparrow (hmm…sparrow.  That could be a name contender)

Like I was saying, tomorrow she’ll be ready to leave her birth parents nest and build a new home with her chosen family in sunny California!  Of course, she won’t be going on that journey alone.  Dingo and I will be guiding her along the way.  I selected a route much further south than my origional plan in order to avoid the possible erratic and treacherous winter weather in the north.

With this new route, Dingo and I will snake beside the great Mississippi River before turning West.  From there we’ll glide along the eastern edges of the Rocky Mountains, down through the natural red-stoned monoliths of the South West. We’ll skate on the edges of the great canyons of Arizona, and finally rise up through the middle of California. 

While this trip is only two weeks long, it has kicked my travel anxiety into full gear.  Of course, to alleviate that anxiety I’ve done as much pre-travel preparation as possible. 

I’m depending on the well tested organizational approach of grouping things into piles. 

You see, the use of piles gives me full visibility into everything I want to take, while not forcing any commitment.  I am a chronic over packer, so this gives me time to think about how much I’m going to use the item and whether it’s really worth it to haul around with me.

Take, for example, a kitchen ladle.  Let’s say I’m sitting on the couch and realize, “oh…I should pack a ladle!”  If I wasn’t going with the “Pile Method,” I’d have to find where I packed my kitchen gear, open up the box or bag, dig around and make sure I didn’t already pack a ladle, put the ladle in the bag, then seal it all back up and repack it.  Then an hour later I might think, “oh, I should pack an oven mit.”  I’d have to go through the whole process again.  This is opposed to simply pulling the ladle out and putting it in a “kitchen pile.”  Eventually that kitchen pile will be packed, but for now, a pile is more than sufficient.

So, I have lots of piles!  I have my pile of towels and rags (with a couple stray light bulbs that needed new batteries):

I have my entertainment pile, complete with camera accessories, two books and my hiking backpack

I have Camping Pile #1, that includes everything I need to cook food, build a campfire, and hopefully not die in the wilderness.

I have Camping Pile #2, which including anything I need to get out of snow, scrape a wind shield, and stay warm and dry while sleeping.

I have my clothing pile (just the clothing, not the box I’m using as a table).  You might notice that it is a very small pile for a two-week adventure.  It’s true, because who am I going to be interacting with that cares if I’ve warned the same pair of pants two days in a row?  Dingo certainly doesn’t care.  The primary goal of the clothing pile is to be warm and to have at least one set of replacement outerwear in case one set gets so dirty it can walk away on its own.

I have my dry-food / kitchen utensil pile:

And finally, I have my frozen food pile.  This pile may sort of look gross, but it’s just stew that I cooked, froze and sealed in air tight containers.  It will look much better when it’s warmed up.

Eventually (i.e.:  tonight) all of these piles will be packed into my car perfectly!  Until then, the piles continue to grow.  Their content is multiplying like bunnies, which will mean one thing.  I’ll need to do a lot of post-pile-packing-putting away later tonight.  Oh well!